E.ON Posts Drop In H1 Profit

E.ON SE EONGY reported a drop in its net profit for the first half of the year. Germany's net profit for the period tumbled more than 73% to EUR821 million ($1.1 billion), versus a year-ago profit of EUR3.08 billion. Its underlying after-tax profit fell 20% to EUR1.53 billion compared to EUR1.91 billion, versus analysts' estimates of EUR1.45 billion. The company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) fell about 12% to EUR5 billion from EUR5.7 billion. Analysts expected an EBITDA of EUR4.9 billion. Its revenue dropped by about 13% to EUR56.12 billion versus EUR64.64 billion. Electricity sales rose 2% to 371.2 billion kWh versus 364.6 billion kWh, while gas sales dropped to 519.4 billion kWh from 679.7 billion kWh. At June 30, net debt slipped to 29.7 billion euros, versus 31.1 billion at the end of March. E. ON confirmed its profit forecast for the full year. The company still projects EBITDA of EUR8 billion to EUR8.6 billion and underlying profit of EUR1.5 billion to EUR1.9 billion. E. ON shares fell 1.43% to close at $17.58 yesterday.